Here is Momma and one of the babies.. they are the sweetest birds and so full of love and not one mean bone in their body... no wonder they are the symbol of peace! The daddy helps to feed the baby. More couples are building their nests inside the fenced yard.. I sure don't know what I'll do if I see our cat out there..
A, I feed the wild birds too and the Morning Doves are one of my favorites.
You can buy a cat collar at the $ store or somewhere, attach one or two large
jingle bells to the collar. Look in the crafts section at Wal-Mart.
That way the cat can't sneak up on the feeding birds. Works for us.
Jackie
Oh Jackie, what a great Idea.. I never thought of that! I'll do that this week. before Hobo Joe tries .. the thing is that they are so tame, they are not afraid, so they just stay where they are and do not fly away.. one came into the house this morning in the living room and tried to fly out thru the skylight..
fernman,
They like small trees and will make their nests pretty low, so if you gather lots of sticks and just make a pile somewhere, you can watch them.. I watched some barn swallows build their nest for two weeks while I was on the computer.. they are neat to watch, the nest is still there and get's looked at by some other little birds. I think they will come back when they are ready to settle down..lol
Here is the work of art that I speak of...with 3 babies in the brood. I think that is one of the reasons I don't really like leaving the house, too many guests and they keep me company.
This should work A. I think you will find that the birds instinctively know to be
afraid of the cats even though they're no longer afraid of people. Several of the
smaller bells might make more noise than 2 larger ones. Buy a pack of each so you can see which works best. Once we put the bells on our Suzie Q, that was the end of her bird catching days. She thought we were feeding them just so she
could catch them. LOL
OH A. I love them and their soft cooing..I know some people that don't!!! Boo too them I say.
I had a pair last year that made there home in one of my hanging pots, three clutches later they left. There is a pair back this year and I do believe they are the same ones...
Oh Ronnie,
If that isn't a picture of love, I don't know what is!
We are so lucky to get to be around them.
You guys will never believe this one!!!! this guy here, came inside for the winter, he dug himself into one of my pots that I brought inside with Aristolochia plants, one day last week I found the hole where he had come out, I still cannot find him inside the house. I leave the door open all day in hopes that he finds it and goes back outside.
Remember him? Prince Charming ala bode..
A.
Ronnie.... what a picture!! Wonderful. And I assume your name really does mean you love Great Danes? I had two lovely blues, many many years ago.... what wonder gentle giants.
And Gourd, love the Prince. Hope he finds his way back out!
Sanna
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=4691613
That is precious. I love it.
I remember one year a wren built a nest in our livingroom window. We got to watch close up as mom cared for them. It was sad when they flew away. Karen
Thanks Sanna, and yes I do Llove Great Danes" I have 2 soon to be 3!
A., I love the "Prince"!!! Animals and gardening seem to go hand in hand don't they!! Nature at it's finest....
Awww! I love all the garden critter photos! Just too adorable for words! :-)
It is so nice out with these guys, if I see the doves all fly away at once, I know someone or something is coming, they notify me immediately. There is a huge roadrunner that runs up and down the top of our rockwall. He makes a gawking sound, at first I thought it was something else, then we ran into each other face to face.. what scare that was..lol I don't know who was more scared me or him. He visits about once a month or every two months. Since we are in the middle of pecan orchards, there are a million crows too that fly overhead, like a cloud when the pecans start to fall.
I wish I knew more about the birds, there are white ones with long pelican legs and others too that drink the water and look for worms during irrigation time next door.
A.
Take pictures of them and post on the Bird ID thread in the Bird Watching Forum. Great flock of folks over there!
i miss roadrunners, when I was in my teens (ahem) they were so more common,, now all the new development in the area, which is OUTOFHAND has scared them all to the farthest hills. I remember seeing one in Las Vegas on my apartment bottom step, right off Sahara avenue;
totally out of its element.SO strange, i thouhgt maybe if I chased it into the houses away from the street (which I did) it might be oK, ~never saw it again, poor lost critter! It was like two blocks off the Strip!!
:Darren
Last year my daughter found a baby roadrunner and tried to save it, but couldn't. she said it was running inside the box she had it in. It was the weekend and she didn't know who to call to help her try to save it. Anyway, I can just picture it running around inside that box. She didn't know how it got there or if there was a nest around. It is so nice to sit out there and enjoy nature's animals. We used to have quite a few lizards here, but we rescued this cat that eats them.. so now there aren't any around the yard, when I would water and they heard the water running, lizards would come and drink water.. that was so neat to watch..
we feed the darned cat, I don't know why he wants to kill them... my daughter said that they need a certain amount of fresh kill...
A.
The cats kill and don`t eat because they are too full from catfood. It must be some sort of sport for them.
Patootie(Jackie`s) idea of putting the bell on the collar is ingenious. :)
This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 3:00 PM
Oh guys, here is the baby alone today... I went later on to visit him and he was gone... sometimes he tries out his wings and lands on one of my ornamental frogs..lol
I could hear all the birds on the other side of our rockwall... and took these photos, I dont' know if they are geese or what..
after a couple of photos, they decided I had bothered them enough.. so they went to eat a little further away..lol they stop for a drink while migrating back North..
Patootie,
Just came to tell you that my cat sounds very Christmasy with his little bells on.
I love it.
Now, if I could just catch the local Cooper's Hawk and wrap a few bells around his neck...grrr
Those hawks have really increased along with development around here, but we still enjoy a trio of mourning doves waddling up and down a brick path to a bird feeder. Our neighbor very kindly belled his kitty's neck, and ours are indoor cats.
Very poetic pictures, Gourd - just the thing for spring.
there's a Red Tail Hawk that keeps circling the house, yesterday, he flew into the yard and almost hit the window where I was at the computer.. I ducked. They are really adept at their flying skills, it just manuevered its wings and barely missed the window. I found lots of feathers in the back yard too. I guess that's the way mother nature intended it to be.
Hobo Joe, our cat was a rescue and he ate whatever he could find in CA, well, we brought him with us and he had worms, so, after his meds, he has gained some weight and looks healthy, but I'll be darned if he doesn't want fresh kill once in awhile. We can't break him of that habit, he is also and indoor cat here, but he falls off the wagon once in a while..lol
A, glad you got kitty the collar and bells.
Hope the jingle jangling at night won't keep you awake. LOL
Don't laugh, but, Joe has his own room.. the dogs and the cat do not like being around each other, so Joe has to stay in one of the extra rooms at night.. lucky cat..!!! but he is a sweetheart. I don't know how to get them to get along, I'm afraid they will kill him. So he stays on one side of the house and we have separate fenced in areas that the dogs are allowed.. Somehow Joe knows not to go there.
A, my outside dogs, fenced, act like they would kill my cats.
Not my small inside dogs, they get along fine with the cats.
You're doing the right thing by
keeping them separated and not risking it.
The bells can be noisy so glad that's not a problem for you.
Jackie, these doves are not flying away from this darned cat, they may be too accustomed to us. Yesterday the cat climbed up the tree just a few inches from the dove, I had to clap my hands and scare the dove.. and then it just jumped to the next branches. I hate to scare them off. I may have to add more bells, he's got the one that came on the collar (very small) and I added two of the jingle bells, I have one more bell left, I just did not want to make his collar heavy.. Hey, maybe I should hang a rock, so he can't run too fast.
Also, we are empty nesters now, the baby left this weekend and he walks the rock wall sometimes, hopefully he'll stick around here. There are so many doves that I can't tell who is who now, they've multiplied quit a bit in spite of Joe.
A, that's simply amazing. I can't get anywhere close to the Doves.
Try adding a few more bells.
If that doesn't work, I wonder if you could find a small cowbell.
Not much you can do when the bird thinks he's just a spectator.
Every time you go out with Joe, try adding a bunch of coins to an
empty vege can. It's what I use to scare the blackbirds.
I think they are used to just us and the dogs around.. they are pretty safe in the yard and then we have fields all over the place, they probably think we are one of them. The dogs sometimes bark at the birds as they fly over, they do not like crows or the other black birds. I don't know why. They will just stare at the doves. I've got to figure out something because they are too tame/trusting, but what is strange is that they do not like strangers. Immediately you will see them flutter and go on top of the roof of the house and watch from there or hide in the trees.
Today, it was really windy and the doves made these trenches in the sand and you could see they buried half of their bodies, at first I wondered the heck they were.. then you could see that they had made those pits to get into for protection from the wind... and one thing they do is face the wind, never do they stand with their backs towards the wind, I guess the winds goes right off the feathers and not against the feathers.. really smart birds, even though they let the darned cat eat them sometimes.
A - My cat is a house cat. But she got out accidentally one day about a month ago. I have the white winged doves that come to my birdfeeder every day. I was out in the garden after work and found one of the birds dead. Then I saw my cat jet across the backyard. I knew she had caught and killed it. Bad kitty, bad!!! So in the house she went and we watch her closely now to make sure she doesn't sneak out when we go out the backdoor. I was so mad. They really are such gentle birds. Did you ever see my video of them on YouTube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9teqGdw8z4
This message was edited Mar 31, 2008 10:35 PM
Oh my god, Becky, they are so neat... I had not seen that! What type of food do you put in there? Oh you have to tell me... I have 8 water saucers out there for them but only one (this is embarrassing) I have a direct tv satelite dish as a birdfeeder, but it holds alot of bird seed.. I like that one you have... oooh,.. i loved watching that video.
The seed mix I use is called Premium Deck, Porch, N' Patio by 3-D Pet Products. It's zero-waste bird seed. It has all kinds of goodies in it and smells like sweet cherries. I just love the smell. I guess the birds do too! They all come in the morning and afternoon to eat. I have finches, woodpeckers, and cardinals too. Off and on all day long. And the squirrels get 2 small bowls of it on the ground and the doves often eat right along side of them. Did you see my squirrel video? LOL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hstiDUh-t9I
I get the seed and also bought the hanging feeder at Wal-Mart. I buy the seed every week. It's kinda expensive compared to other brands and mixes, but it sure brings in the birds and squirrels. :-)
Oh boy... I'm heading to walmart tomorrow after I'm done with the taxes.. We just put in a post 6"x6"x8' that we plan on drilling some holes on top for feeders and water containers. Oh those squirrels are neat, they sure are fast too.. they look territorial
And if you liked the squirrel video, you are gonna love the "Hummer and Frog" video! It's a hoot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyKrsl_AKDU
This one is my favorite video of all that I have made. :-) Enjoy!
I wouldn't be able to get anything done around here, I love it. That looks like it would be so much fun. I love nature. You are so lucky... two days ago I saw a hummingbird moth and two orange butterflies, but didn't have the camera handy... the hummingbird moth tried to check my t-shirt out, It was green so it must have looked like a plant..lol.. it was not afraid of me, but i wasn't too sure what it was. It was a clearwing.. with red wings going into the verbena flowers that I had just put into the pots. It was so neat.
That's so funny that you mentioned the Hummingbird Moth came at you. I get attacked every sunset by one or two of those moths! I can't figure out why they fly at me. My dh thought it might be my perfume. LOL! I get bumped in the head by them and also the large bumble bees. I've never been stung or hurt, but they sure like to fly right into me! I wonder if they are warning me to stay away! Some insects are very territorial too.
The squirrels have a pecking order in their clan. They all get to eat, but only after the head-honchos eat first! The poor little squirrel who lost his tail always seems to eat last! I named him "Stubby"! LOL!
This message was edited Mar 31, 2008 11:03 PM
Oh man, I gotta tell you guys... Hobo Joe is just too smart. He has taken his collar off twice. Not slipped out of it, he has unclasped it. I thought maybe he got caught on something, because it is a safety collar, the ones that come undone if they get caught..
Well, He sat on his carpet arpartment and took the darn thing off.. there was no way he could have gotten caught on anything. This was the second time.
The first time, he took it off under a bench that he usually sits under.
I don't know what to do next.. he is wearing it now.. if it just slipped off, I could make it tighter, but he is clasping it. Anyone ever heard of this?
Becky, poor stubby.. I have hummers here today and some BFs, but haven't been able to take photos.. had to pot up the plumerias that I got a couple of weeks ago, they were sticks on the kitchen counter and they looked like they were starting to dry up some.
